During the project discussion, we took into account the investment in the SDGs and NCKU’s current vision for Atelier Future. We also considered the predicament of Taiwan’s education system. We found that there were many problems in daily living and on campus that needed to be improved, but were ignored or shelved for years. Not only was the learning attitude passive, but Taiwanese students generally did not think they had the ability to solve problems.

Therefore, Loftwork focused on “solving future problems” and divided the Future Dynamic project into two stages, starting with the “Creative Leadership Development Program” as the cornerstone. The Creative Leadership Development Program emphasized the learning of communication skills and design thinking. The second stage allowed students to use their expertise and participate in one of three different workgroups, bringing in a multinational group of lecturers to prompt students to reinterpret Tainan or NCKU campus through their own perspectives.

Creative Leadership Development

In the digital age, the opportunity for face-to-face conversation has decreased dramatically, and today’s students face a lack of communication practice. To improve their conversation skills and help them explore leadership styles, the program invited mentors Kelsie Stewart (FabCafe CCO) and Tim Wong (Loftwork Taiwan Co-Founder) to start with self-assessment and one-on-one interviews to understand the students’ goals. The students learned about the creative toolset and basic business models to strengthen their perceptual skills and improve peer-to-peer communication. This program helped students gain a sense of accomplishment, support each other, and foster good teamwork.

 

Actual participation in the workgroup

In the second stage, which ran parallel to the Creative Leadership Development program, students were divided into three workgroups to engage in research in different fields and solve real societal problems. From the different workgroups, students learned new technologies such as Augmented Reality, Physical Computing, Parametric Design, and Bio-material Cultivation. They also experienced how to refine ideas in an interdisciplinary environment and start conversation and collaboration with experts from different nationalities.

The workgroups were as follows.

＜Safecast Workgroup＞
Lead by Loftwork and Safecast, and mentored by Safecast Co-founder Pieter Franken and Lead Researcher Azby Brown. This workgroup focused on using a citizen science approach to create an air quality and radiation database for Tainan City. Through the workshop, students learned how to communicate with local stakeholders, expand the local environmental monitoring community, and make an active contribution to Safecast global environmental monitoring efforts.

＜Circular & Generative Design Workgroup＞
The Circular & Generative design Workgroup was hosted by Professor Daichiro Mizuno, Professor Kazutoshi Tsuda, and Junichiro Horikawa (Founder of OrangeJellies) of Kyoto Design Laboratory at Kyoto Institute of Technology. This workgroup explored how to use circular design principles to design,  prototype, and experiment with upcycled materials and biomaterials. In the program, students learned about how to use parametric design for prototyping and simulation testing.

＜XR Campus Workgroup＞
Led by Professor Shigeru Kobayashi (IAMAS), Professor Kyle Li (Parsons Design School) and Loftwork, with technical support from Psychic VR Lab, creator of the STYLY platform. The workgroup explored ways to transform the campus experience, using augmented reality technology and physical computing. This empowered students to create their own geo-spatial content and create different data layers to overlay onto the campus on an urban scale.